A group of Girl Scouts in Swampscott has completed a nature center in Ewing Woods, located behind the elementary school.

Girl Scout Troop 72182 members Amelia Crehan, Audrey Hale, and Téa O’Donoghue earned their Silver Awards by connecting the school with nearby conservation land and promoting local ecology. Painted Lady, Monarch, and Eastern Black Swallowtail butterfly gardens now sit outside the elementary school, each marked with informative signs. A little free nature center box also stands at the entrance to Ewing Woods, a 7.3-acre parcel of public conservation land on Whitman Road.

“The girls wanted to find a way to deeper connect the school and nature right in front of them,” Troop Leader Suzanne Hale told the Swampscott Tides. “It’s a way to get involved with local ecology.”

The girls chose the project themselves. 

Silver Award Girl Scouts are typically in sixth, seventh or eighth grade. The award is earned by a team of girls who tackle an issue affecting their community, often with the goal of making sustainable change.

For the Troop 72182 girls, signs in front of the butterfly gardens explain which butterfly species are attracted to the flowers and plants. There’s a butterfly lifecycle description and photos of species visitors might spot.

The nature box is almost like a little free library, “but instead of having random books it has resources for the nature it’s at the entrance of,” Hale explained. 

Amelia, Audrey, and Téa stocked the nature center with bingo sheets for kids to identify features of the woods, seasonal plant guides, seed packets, and information on local wildlife.

A QR code on the side links visitors to iNaturalist, allowing them to identify plants along the trail. Scientists also can use the observations for research.

“It offers to anyone visiting a way to get more involved,” Hale said. “Swampscott’s very small geographically. It has conservancy land but is somewhat underutilized. This project is done in hopes of getting more people out there.”